294 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



"Mr. Speaker, this was the language of the 

 President of the United States in reference to 

 the act of 1862, when submitted to him for his 

 approval without the joint resolution explaining 

 and limiting it. It is now proposed to repeal 

 the joint resolution which induced him to ap- 

 prove the act, and to leave the latter in force as 

 a law in the form in which the President de- 

 clared ho could not sign it because it was un- 

 constitutional." 



The report was postponed and printed, and 

 on February 9th brought up for consideration 

 again in the House. 



Mr. Eliot said: "I do not propose at this 

 time, Mr. Speaker, to say any thing in defence 

 of the bill ; but I am prepared and shall be glad 

 to answer all objections that may be urged 

 against the. bill, if any shall be, in the course of 

 any debate upon it. Congress has within a few 

 days done all that we could do to make free all 

 the slaves within the United States. But it 

 will be remembered that, although that freedom 

 was initiated by the President in his proclama- 

 tion of the 1st of January, 1863, yet, up to this 

 time, there has been no legislative action which 

 has had in view the welfare of that class of men. 

 "We have legislated for the Treasury. We have 

 done what we could to provide for the leasing 

 of the abandoned lands, in view of revenue. 

 But thus far nothing has been done in connec- 

 tion with the freedmen or their welfare, except 

 a law passed on the 2d of July, I think, of the 

 last session of Congress, That law, in one of 

 its provisions, put into the care of the Treasury 

 Department this whole business. I desire to 

 refer to a few of the provisions of that law. 



"By that act the agents of the Treasury 

 Department, that is, the special supervising 

 agents, the agents who were appointed under 

 the act, I believe, of March, 1863, to whom was 

 given in charge the taking possession of aban- 

 doned lands and other property, and the leasing 

 of lands for the largest revenue that could be 

 obtained, and the selling of property for the use 

 of the Government; these special agents are 

 empowered to 'take charge of and lease the 

 abandoned lauds, houses, and tenements within 

 the rebel districts ; and they shall also provide, 

 in such leases or otherwise, for the employment 

 and general welfare of the freedmen.' That is 

 to say, as gentlemen will find by examining the 

 law, these agents are now required to lease the 

 lands, and in those leases or otherwise to pro- 

 vide for the employment of these freedmen; 

 the United States being the lessors, parties go- 

 ing from all sections of the country being the 

 lessees, the freedmen being the subjects of the 

 contract." 



Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, said : " I would like to 

 know of the gentleman from Massachusetts if it 

 is the intention of the committee that this bill, 

 if it becomes a law, shall be operative after the 

 reCstablishment of civil authority? " 



Mr. Eliot : u As soon as civil authority is re- 

 established, and those States are admitted into 

 the Union, or readmitted, as gentlemen may 



please, and their social and political relations 

 resumed, there can be no doubt that those 

 States will have the same rights as the State in 

 which my friend lives, or the State in which I 

 live, may have concerning all the matters which 

 may come within the jurisdiction of such 

 States." 



Mr. Wilson : " I intended that question as a 

 leader to another, which is, that if this law is 

 not to be operative in those States after the 

 reestablishment of civil authority, then what 

 courts does the gentleman refer to when he 

 speaks of those parties having the proper reme- 

 dies in the courts of justice?" 



Mr. Eliot: "I have not stated that the law 

 would not be operative, nor would it follow 

 from any remark I have made that such would 

 be the case. I have said, and it is true, that 

 each State would have a right to do all those 

 things within its boundary that the State of 

 Iowa or Massachusetts would have. It may be 

 that for the passing time the operations of this 

 bill might be continued for the care of those 

 freedmen after that point of time should have 

 arrived. That would perhaps depend upon the 

 legislation of each State. When the time comes 

 that action should be had which would termi- 

 nate the charge which this bill would have, 

 provisions would be made which would prob- 

 ably cover all the difficulties suggested by the 

 gentleman from Iowa. 



" I shall close by asking to have read at the 

 Clerk's desk some passages from a communica- 

 tion to the President of the United States, and 

 -then I wish that the message of the President 

 on the subject shall be read." 



The Clerk read, as follows : 



WASHINGTON, D. C., December 1, 1S63. 



SIR : We appear before you a committee of gentle- 

 men representing the Freedman's Aid Societies in 

 Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, and, 

 in general, the anxieties and sympathies of the 

 American people in regard to the present position 

 and future prospects of the freedmen created by your 

 proclamation of emancipation. 



****** 



It is not, Mr. President, that we are seriously in 

 doubt as to the methods to be adopted with the freed- 

 men, for we have not been disappointed in the 

 schemes in their favor we hare already planned and 

 executed. It is only that these schemes are small, 

 and must continue so, while the demand for their 

 adoption is large, beyond even our present power to 

 meet it, and growing with prodigious strides every 

 hour. It is the magnitude, not the nature of the 

 work, that appalls us, and drives us to the Government 

 for aid and support. We have found the freedman 

 easy to manage, beyond even our best hopes ; willing 

 and able to nght--as a soldier; willing and able to 

 work, as a laborer; willing and able to learn as a 

 pupil ; docile, patient, affectionate, grateful, and al- 

 though with a great tribal range of intellect from 

 nearly infantile to nearly or quite the best white in- 

 telligence, yet with an average mental capacity above 

 the ordinary estimates of it. 



We have no doubts of the aptitude of the slave for 

 freedom under any fair circumstances. But we see 

 that his circumstances must inevitably be unfair un- 

 der the best arrangements the Government can make, 

 and that, independently of a great paternal care on 

 the part of the Government, they will be so bad as to 





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